Doak Smith, a veteran apparatus operator at Fire Station 69 in Pacific Palisades, was honored as 2011 Firefighter of the Year during a luncheon ceremony at the Kyoto Grand Hotel on March 21. The award, which is based on character, dedication, loyalty and accomplishments, has been given annually by the L.A. City Firefighters Association since 1967. ‘He’s humble and doesn’t like being in the spotlight,’ said Station 69 Captain Mike Ketaily, who nominated Smith for the award. ‘But when there’s a dirty job to do, Doak volunteers.’ Ketaily recalled how he told his firefighters that a retired battalion chief had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and how the following day when Ketaily made a special trip to visit the chief, Smith was already there, reassuring the man that he would be taken care of. Last summer, when Station’s 69 Jorge Ostrovsky and six L.A. firefighters cycled across the United States to honor those who lost their lives on September 11, they needed various people to follow them in an RV from Los Angeles to New York. Although there were numerous volunteers for the final leg into New York City, Smith elected to take two weeks of his vacation to drive the vehicle from Albuquerque to Oklahoma. Smith, who lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife Cindy, a graphic artist for the Thousand Oaks library, also volunteers for the Los Angeles Firemen’s Relief Association, which assists widows and orphans. He always joins other firefighters on Palisades street corners to collect money for their annual ‘Fill the Boot’ campaign for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. ‘I’ve never worked with an individual of this caliber before,’ Ketaily said. At Newbury Park High School, Smith took college-prep classes and was a pitcher on the baseball team until his senior year when he quit. ‘I wasn’t having a fun time with the coach’for the first time it wasn’t fun,’ Smith said. During that same time he joined the fire cadets, ‘a career program at the school. They assigned you to a local fire station so you could learn about the career.’ Although his mom wanted him to attend college and his father wanted him to pursue baseball, Smith opted to become a fireman after graduating from high school in 1979. He worked for four months with the U.S. Forest Service, seeing action at the Mount Wilson fire, and then was hired by the Ventura County Fire Department, where he was employed until he joined the Los Angeles Fire Department in December 1980. After a 10-week training period, he was transferred to Station 69 (on Sunset at Carey), where he served his probationary period. ‘When I was here, then, it drove me crazy,’ Smith said, noting that as a young man, he desired stations that had constant activity. After a year at Station 69, he was transferred to Boyle Heights, then to North Hollywood, the USC area and finally South Central. Smith has responded to hundreds of fires, car crashes and various emergencies, including the 1988 First Interstate fire and the turmoil connected to the city’s 1992 riots. ‘That time with Rodney King was like out of a movie,’ Smith said. ‘To be a firefighter and be right there: you are part of history. I had mixed emotions when it was over.’ Smith explained that most firemen like to work at big incidents, but there is a high degree of job satisfaction helping someone or working on a small fire. ‘It’s the stuff we do on a daily business that keeps it interesting,’ he said. ‘But fatality fires or accident entrapments stick with you. Many of these never make it to the news.’ Smith, now 51, was glad to return to Station 69 in 2004. Ketaily and Smith explained that many firefighters, as they near retirement, are assigned to the Palisades. Although they don’t answer as many calls as a station in South Los Angeles, experience is key factor here, because of the geographical isolation of the Palisades. ‘The potential for a significant incident is huge,’ Ketaily said. ‘When we go to an incident, we are here by ourselves.’ Smith is scheduled to retire in 2015, qualifying for a pension based on years of service, rather than age. ‘Firefighting is a young person’s job,’ he said, noting the job comes with heavy physical demands; he has had an ACL replacement in his knee and suffered herniated discs. ‘It really hurts to get up at night now. When you’re younger it doesn’t seem to bother as much.’ To understand a firefighter’s lifestyle, especially between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., Smith recommends: ‘Jump out of bed every time you hear an alarm, get dressed, dash to your car and then drive to the location. Run a lap around the area. Get back in the car, drive back to your home. Take your clothes off, go back to bed and when the alarm rings, which could be as many as seven times in an evening at some stations, repeat the process.’ In spite of all the demands, Smith has been happy with his career choice. ‘The fire department provides me with the opportunity to do and see things that 99 percent of the population never get to. There is teamwork, camaraderie and the public-service aspect.’ He is appreciative of Pacific Palisades. ‘It has a small-town feel. We are your fire department. It is nice to interact with the community.’
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